US Patent 11079875 Compact home assistant having touch sensitive housing

A compact electronic device has a touch sensor and/or a microphone that are concealed within a housing at least partially wrapped by an acoustically porous cover. In some implementations, the touch sensor includes a sensing portion and a contact portion extending from the sensing portion. While the sensing portion is placed in proximity to an interior surface of the housing to detect a touch on the housing, the contact portion is bent to electrically couple the sensing portion to a circuit board via two distinct electrical paths. In some implementations, an exterior surface of the housing includes a sealing area surrounding an aperture on the housing, and the acoustically porous cover is affixed to the sealing area via an adhesive. The adhesive covers the sealing area and permeates a thickness of the acoustically porous cover, thereby enabling formation of a controlled sound path to access the microphone via the aperture.